World Kindness Day

Centering their exploration of this SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) topic on Carol McCloud’s book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids, students have been hard at work becoming expert “bucket fillers” and sharing how they like to have their buckets filled with their classmates and teachers.

Students have also learned about the lasting effects their words (both kind and hurtful) can have on others through an interactive lesson called “Paper Person.” In this exercise, classmates role-played saying unkind phrases (bucket dippers) to a new classmate made out of paper. As each thing was said, the paper classmate was crumpled a bit more until all that was left was a crumpled ball. Students then used kind words (bucket fillers) to refill their paper classmate’s buckets and "uncrumple" them. Although their paper classmate was straightened out and returned to its original state at the end, students saw that the wrinkles caused by the unkind words were left behind and still visible.

Lastly, students were introduced to the acronym T.H.I.N.K. as a tool to help them determine whether what they want to say out loud should be said or not. First graders were taught to ask themselves the following 5 questions:

"Is what I want to say…"

True: Is this a fact or an opinion? Do I KNOW this is true?

Helpful: Who or what is this helping?

Inspiring: Is this something a hero or leader would say?

Necessary: Does this need to be said right now?

Kind: Would I like it if someone said this to me?

If the answer is “No” to any of these questions, students are working on keeping those thoughts to themselves or finding a private time to talk with an adult about them.

Overall, we are challenging our first graders to be Kindness Ambassadors around the Bentley campus, spread the word about bucket filling, and stand up for those whose buckets are being dipped into or emptied.